Small Yet Mighty – Mt Eliza House by BENT Architecture

Emphasising quality and enriching life, Mt Eliza House sees a couple downsize to their forever home. BENT Architecture enables prolonged occupation within areas that embrace and celebrate a sense of connection and community, irrespective of age.

Having moved from their previous home and its generous immersive garden space, Mt Eliza House needed to retain principles to facilitate comfortable living. BENT Architecture has been developing an understanding and growing interest in better appropriating the typology of retired living. An exploration into how best to resolve issues around changing needs was imperative, ensuring the owners remain connected to their home and to location they intend to live within.

Connecting beyond the traditional building edge, open and free flowing access between inside and out was important.

Mt Eliza House equally expresses its owners through the resulting built and natural elements on site. Integral to the brief was the garden, which acts as both an accompanying component to the home and as a place to potter and work for its residents. Although significantly downsized, the home embeds accessibility and supported mobility. Subtly executed, compromises are avoided and common elements of aged care are instead integrated into the spaces.

Connecting beyond the traditional building edge, open and free flowing access between inside and out was important. By creating the home and its landscape elements from concept, consideration was given to access and how spaces interact, seeing ramps eliminated from the design. A connection to what is familiar as a residence, and by referencing a midcentury approach, the built elements neatly fold amongst the natural.

Integral to the brief was the garden, which acts as both an accompanying component to the home and as a place to potter and work for its residents.

Enabling an established connection to place to continue into older age, Mt Eliza House draws on past resonance in sculpting the next chapter for the owners. BENT Architecture combines a passion for comfortable living with a refined robustness to allow for the many combinations of life to come together.